Loves Ugly Children

[profile contribution thanks to jason young and rob mayes – mayes has written a detailed description of his connections to the band which is available on the failsafe website, though there is obviously some contention over certain elements of the groups history]loves ugly children was formed in christchurch in 1989 by vocalist/guitarist simon maclaren (blue flesh syndrome), featuring scott mcarthur – guitar, floss (angela leslie) – bass and simon crockett – drums (trawler). after playing its debut gig supporting dolphin at the subway, the band recorded five tracks in maclaren’s old mill warehouse with rob mayes, which appeared on the tape-only release ‘stagger’ (failsafe). when floss split with mcarthur to pursue a relationship with maclaren, they continued their music as a three piece under another name, with maclaren singing and playing guitar and a new drummer from dunedin, greg. they didn’t play any material from the previous line up, though they did decide to revert back to the name loves ugly children. after recording several songs, none of which were released, greg was offered an album and tour with the verlaines, and left the band during july ’90. the uglies again ceased to exist for nine months, simon and floss playing in other chch bands including the hilarious sex trash automobile.a jam with neighbour jason young (excellent soul therapy and cultivation) during may ’91 led to the reformation of loves ugly children with their first gig only two weeks after that. quite a few important songs were created in these first two weeks including ‘good things’, ‘strangers song’ and ‘love you dead’ which became standards in the luc set for the next couple of years. a recording at arnie van bussel’s nightshift studio led to a tape-only release of ‘good things’ which went on to be #1 on rdu radio station. the first six months saw luc play many shows, win a war of the bands at the carlton and tour the south island, returning to find themselves parked solidly at the forefront of the chch scene.